1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a container for animal litter and more particularly to such a container which is uniquely well suited to housing animal litter for use by home pets in a manner as to allow easy access for the pet in using the container while preventing the litter from being scattered by the pet during use.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of animal litter containers has long been known. Animal litter containers make it possible to keep animals indoors by providing a means by which an animal may exercise their bodily functions indoors by means of a litter container. Use of an animal litter container makes it more convenient to keep animals as pets.
However convenient they may be, animal litter containers can be unsightly and unsanitary because of the scattering of the litter by the animal using the container. More particularly, certain animals, such as cats, instinctively bury their waste in the litter. In the process of doing this, litter is frequently scattered outside the container, some of it contaminated with animal waste. This creates both an unsightly and unsanitary condition.
Attempts made in the prior art to prevent the scattering of animal litter have assumed various forms. Many such prior art litter containers, for example, have a top and a bottom which limit access by the animal to the litter. A narrow opening in the top offers the only means of ingress and egress in many such devices.
While some of the prior art practices and devices have operated with varying degrees of success, they are unsatisfactory in one or more respects. For example, access to some of these devices is so limited that the animals for which they are designed will not use them. Others require that the animal be specially trained in order to use the litter container. Furthermore, some of these litter containers do not dependably prevent the scattering of the animal litter.
Therefore, it has long been known that it would be desirable to have a container capable of preventing the scattering of animal litter and which is easily accessible by the animal and requires no special training.